2009 Conference Keynote

Barry Smitherman
Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT)

Comverge is pleased to announce that this year's keynote speaker is Barry Smitherman, Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). Chairman Smitherman also serves as on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Committee on Energy Resources, and the Environment and the U.S. Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee.

An industry leader at the forefront of advancements in energy, Chairman Smitherman will discuss the future of the Smart Grid and offer unique insight on the state of the industry as well as what can be expected from the recent emphasis placed on cleaner energy by President Obama.

Kenneth Belcher (Panel speaker)
Senior Load Management Analyst,
Tampa Electric Company

Kenny has been in load management at Tampa Electric Company since 2002. Tampa Electric serves more than 669,000 customers and has delivered residential and commercial conservation and load management programs since the 1980’s. Kenny is currently working with his team members to implement Price Responsive Load Management at Tampa Electric following a two year pilot. Kenny lives in Valrico, Florida and has been employed by Tampa Electric for the past eleven years working in customer service and field engineering roles.

Don Cortez
Vice President of Operations Technology
CenterPoint Energy

Don Cortez is Division Vice President of Regulated Operations Technology for CenterPoint Energy. He is responsible for creating operational efficiencies by leveraging existing and new technologies. Prior to assuming this post, he was Vice President of Regulated Operations Support for CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric.

Don graduated from Texas A&M University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Upon his graduation, he was employed by Houston Lighting and Power Company a predecessor company to CenterPoint Energy. He has worked for CenterPoint Energy for 32 years. He has held various assignments in Houston and internationally. He held executive positions in utility companies in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cali, Columbia and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Don is on the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Texas, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and the Center for the Commercialization of Electric Technologies (CCET).

Jesse Berst
Managing Director
GlobalSmartEnergy

Jesse Berst is Managing Director of GlobalSmartEnergy and one of the private-sector leaders of America’s transition to clean, smart energy.

GlobalSmartEnergy is a recognized authority on the smart energy revolution and the market opportunities it represents. Clients include Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Energy, Global Environment Fund, the GridWise Alliance, Avista Utilities, Southern California Edison, the State of New Mexico, the Province of British Columbia, Prize Capital and many others. GSE services include strategic research, white papers, mergers and acquisitions advisory and management of regional and national projects. GSE is also the publisher of SmartGridNews.com, the Internet’s top-ranked site for information about the ongoing $1 trillion remake of North America’s electric power infrastructure.

In the '80s and '90s, Jesse was one of the country's most well-known technology analysts. He was a featured columnist at leading magazines, including Computerworld, Computer Reseller News, InformationWeek and PC Week, authoring more than 700 columns and articles analyzing technology and business trends. He authored or co-authored ten books on personal computing and software, and one on high-tech business concepts, titled The Magnet Effect (McGraw-Hill, 2001). His analysis and commentary were featured widely on national radio and television, including CNNfn, Good Morning America, ABC Nightly News, CBS Radio News, Business Talk Radio and NorthWest CableNews.

Jesse was born in eastern Washington and graduated with highest honors from the University of Puget Sound with a degree in business administration.

Elliot Boardman
Executive Director
Peak Load Management Alliance

Mr. Boardman is Executive Director of the Peak Load Management Alliance, a trade association of the leading organizations dealing with demand response in electricity markets. Members of PLMA include electricity providers, DR system and hardware providers, curtailment service providers, as well as some of the leading research and consulting organizations in the country.

Formerly, Mr. Boardman was Executive Director of the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP), Vice President of Government Institutes, Inc., Director of Technical Divisions of ASM International, Director of Communications for Synergic Resources Corporation and has held various positions in the Aerospace industry.

A graduate of Cleveland State University with a graduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Boardman has over 30 years experience in association management, particularly in the energy field.

Shawn Borden, CEM
Energy Analyst / Account Manager
Comverge, Inc.

Shawn Borden has over 17 years experience helping commercial and industrial customers manage energy and save money. As an account manager, Shawn serves as the primary point of contact for some of Comverge’s largest customers. She works closely with multi-site retail customers to identify, quantify and realize energy saving opportunities. Her experience includes developing customer-specific analyses including load profile studies, energy benchmarking, end-use simulations and rate comparisons. Shawn has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from West Virginia University and is a Certified Energy Manager.

Rob Hartway (Panel speaker)
Manager, Smart Grid Solutions
Elster

Rob Hartway joined Elster in 2007.  As Manager of Smart Grid Solutions, Rob is responsible for supporting Elster’s utility clients “grow beyond the meter” of their AMI plans and deployments, focusing on Elster’s business strategy and integrated solutions development.  Prior to joining Elster, Rob held management positions at Hunt Power, Grande Communications, C3 Communications, and American Electric Power.  Rob has more than 17 years experience in smart metering and demand-side management spanning development, implementation and evaluation of new products, programs and systems.  His career has spanned rate design, integrated resource planning, regulatory affairs, marketing, business and strategic development.  Rob holds both a BBA and an MA in economics with a concentration in public utility regulation from New Mexico State University.

Kenneth M. Huber
Manager Advanced Technology
PJM Interconnection

Mr. Kenneth M Huber is Manager Advanced Technology at PJM Interconnection with responsibilities for conceiving, developing and applying technology to address the needs of the PJM business units.

Prior to joining PJM, Mr. Huber was employed for 23 years by AT&T Bell Laboratories. His responsibilities included new services creation, vertical industry development and corporate strategy.

Mr. Huber is the holder of 12 patents. One patent, Communications Systems Having Unified Messaging, was awarded patent of the year by Lucent Technologies in 2000.

Mr. Huber holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, a M.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Drexel University.

Patrick James
Director, Demand Response
TXU Energy

Patrick James has over 20 years of electric utility experience and has been working in the Texas deregulated market before market opening in 2002. Currently Patrick is the Director of Demand Response for TXU Energy and is responsible for the design, development and commercialization of the first two-way demand response program in the Texas deregulated market. During his 8 years with TXU Energy, Patrick has served in a variety of leadership roles including Marketing, Channel Sales, P&L Strategy, and Product Development. Prior to joining TXU Energy, Patrick spent 12 years with FPL in South Florida. Patrick has a B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University and is originally from Bluefield, West Virginia.

Meg Matt
President & CEO
Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP)

Meg Matt has been the president and CEO of AESP—a non-profit professional development association—since 2005.  AESP provides educational content in the form of events, training courses, and networking opportunities for AESP’s 1500 members.  This content covers all areas of energy efficiency including: pricing & demand response; program design & implementation; program marketing; market research and evaluation, renewables, technology and more.  AESP members are professionals working for utilities, consulting and vendor firms, public benefits and government entities. Meg is a frequent speaker on the topics of professional networking, new product development, brand strategy and competitive risk.

Ed May
Director Product Marketing
Itron

Ed May was named Director of Itron AMI Business Development in 2007 to support Itron’s OpenWay AMI metering solutions and build market awareness and strategic alliances for Itron advanced metering infrastructure solutions. He was also appointed to the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors and is a member of the GridWise™ Alliance. Ed joined Itron in 1986 and for the past 20 years, he has focused on systems engineering, marketing and sales and optimizing utility business practices, including field workforce automation, distribution automation and automated meter reading. He has worked as a regional and national sales manager and pioneered wireless handheld computing before coming to Itron. He spent nine years in sales with NCR and four years as business development manager with Norand. As a board member of ZigBee Alliance, Ed works with an association of companies to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard.

Dave Mayne (Panel speaker)
Director of Business Development
Digi International

Dave is currently the Director of Business Development for Digi International – specifically focused on establishing solutions and partnerships in the utility industry. Dave was involved in the early stages of Automated Meter Reading, working for Itron from 1992 – 1999. During this time, he held various management positions in Engineering, Sales, and Marketing – helping establish early commercial success for Mobile AMR platforms, while also developing new communication solutions for Itron’s MV-90 C&I metering system. After leaving Itron, Dave joined GE Security – eventually holding the position as Vice President of the Residential Security Group. He was with GE Security from 1999-2005, helping grow the division from $100M to over $300M in global revenues, with over half of that revenue being generated from wireless product offerings.

Benno Ritter
VP Marketing and Business Development
ZigBee Alliance

Benno has more than 17 years of sales, marketing, business development, and operations experience in the semiconductor industry. In the last decade he focused his work in the market for wireless communication technologies like WLAN, Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular, and GPS. He was a founding member of 802.15.4 and the ZigBee Alliance.

Mr. Ritter joined Philips Semiconductors in 1991 in Hamburg, Germany. In 1995 he transferred to Sunnyvale, CA and was responsible for product marketing and sales of digital video processing products. Starting 1997 he took responsibility for product marketing of WLAN products and was leading the efforts for Philips in creating the activities for development of low-power/low-data rate wireless sensor networks in RF-Lite which later became the ZigBee Alliance and in introducing it into IEEE 802.15.4. From 2002 to 2006 after joining Infineon Technologies North America Mr. Ritter was leading the regional marketing activities for Wireless Connectivity products with specific focus on Bluetooth, GPS, and WLAN. In 2006 he assumed for Infineon the global responsibility to manage the customer relationship with Intel.

Mr. Ritter holds a Masters Degree in Physics from the University in Hamburg and an MBA from the San Jose State University.

Sandra Ware
Limited Brands, Inc.
Manager of Energy & Environmental Services

Sandra is responsible for Demand Side Management and Lifecycle Management for more than 2,700 Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works stores.  Her efforts for energy reductions are focused on areas such as lighting retrofits, store optimiztion, energy monitoring and data analysis.  Sandra also created a process for proactively replacing aging HVAC units (she has written a white paper on proactive HVAC replacement).  The store optimization project is her current project, and she expects to be able to maximize the EMS equipment and progressive reporting that is specifically designed for Limited Brands stores. Sandra is responsible for managing $70M in energy bills, and expects to save an average of $4M in energy per year.  She values the partnership with Comverge, and appreciates how the relationship has progressed over the past 9 years.  Sandra has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.